Today, my Kentucky Wonders joined the tomato party— along with some VERY hot peppers

Now it all comes in, all at once

Friends, keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I am about to attempt the doomed and harrowing passage known as Costco on a Sunday Afternoon. Alone. I know it is a brave and foolhardy quest from which return is not assured, so hold me in your hearts.

Make a concrete difference in my wife’s refugee family’s future and survival. Thank you for helping— it truly means everything. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #MutualAid #Refugees #AfghanRefugees #Afghanistan

All the bounty of summer. Wish I could share it with Mashal’s Afghan refugee family facing deportation back under the Taliban— who need resources more practical to survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #MutualAid #Refugees #Afghanistan #Resist

Mashal’s Afghan refugee family are ten deep— three generations, including Aliyah, the grandmother, and her three children and three grandchildren. They are in danger of being sent back under the Taliban. Help us help them survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd#Mut... #Refugees #Afghanistan

Make a difference for my wife’s refugee family. We are so close! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Make a difference for my wife’s refugee family. We are so close! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Blessed to have my aunty’s visit the mainland from Oahu, and to be treated to a deluxe chirashi bowl. But I am thinking of what my wife’s Afghan refugee family has to eat. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Fresh from my garden. Wishing I could share this with my wife’s refugee family, who cannot get fresh food. Please help them survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #mutualaid #refugees

Please help us meet our goal— help this refugee family survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd . #mutualaid #refugees #refugeeswelcome

Please help Mashal’s Afghan refugee family— now in peril— survive. You CAN make a tangible impact— guaranteed. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #MutualAid #Refugees #fundraisers #LiveAid

This is the logic of the fascist: some lives matter more, some people— because of ethnic, cultural, national, regional, or religious background, matter less. Help this refugee family survive— refute/resist. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #MutualAidRequest #Refugees #AfghanRefugees

Every child, refugee or not, deserves a future. Melika, Kawsar, and Mo need help to survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #MutualAid #MutualAidBoost #Refugees #Afghanistan #AfghanRefugees

How do we measure the value of a life— how do we decide some lives matter, but others are expendable? Please help my wife Mashal’s Afghan refugee family survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd. #mutualaid #Refugees #Afghanistan #StopHazaraGenocide

Help us reach our goal— and ensure a future for three Afghan refugee children and their parents! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

My wife’s refugee family’s asylum case was canceled by Trump. Now they are in peril. We are SO close to our goal— please help them survive!

We are SO close. Please help my wife’s Afghan refugee family survive! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #refugee #humanitarianaid #fundraising

Help is make a future for these children! #fundraising#humanitarian #charity #stopthehazaragenocide gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

We are asked to accept the logic that some lives don’t matter, in some places, for people of certain backgrounds. Help refute that logic; help this family survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

We’re so close! Please help these children have a future! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Kawsar and Melika, the two girls, dream of being able to go to school (they cannot, as refugees in Pakistan; they cannot if deported to Afghanistan). Little Mo doesn’t yet know what he wants, beyond a better place to play. Help them find a future. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

It’s the 4th of July, when Tommy J declared independence. Help this family pursue the dream of survival in Pakistan, where they are Afghan refugees from the Taliban. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

This spicy @short-reads.org essay by @michaelcopperman.bsky.social will make you chuckle, and make you hungry, and make you sigh. It's a balm, and if you've read any news at all today, you need it. www.short-reads.org/hot-chips/ #WritingCommunity #foodsky

I spent all night beseiged by MAGA keyboard warriors who mostly mistook my post to be about the US, and came with “joyful” deport memes. Others wrote, “Assimilate or die!” And still others wrote, “This is money going to the Taliban?” Thank you for helping: gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

gofund.me/d9e0b3cd #mutualaid #immigration #justice #resist

Trump ended their asylum to the US. Now they are in great danger. Please help: gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Please help my wife’s family survive! gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

Here is Aliyah, Mashal’s family's grandmother who recently had to have emergency liver surgery, and her daughter and son. She is currently bedbound, and if deported from Pakistan will not have access to the healthcare she needs to survive. gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

I celebrate a win as I try to help my wife Mashal’s Afghan refugee family— including the elderly matriarch and three beautiful young children— who are in terrible danger of being deported from Pakistan. Please please go to my profile for the gofundme. You CAN help!

How do we value a life? How do we decide that our lives matter, while someone else’s life is disposable? gofund.me/d9e0b3cd

This is me at the same age as Kawsar, one of three children in Mashal’s Afghan refugee family who were recently raided by Pakistani police who have already deported 80,000 Afghan refugees back to the Taliban in the last months. Help us help them: gofund.me/aa47f892 #help #fundraising #support

My friend @michaelcopperman.bsky.social is trying to keep his family safe. Please give if you can. And please share widely. Every dollar and every set of eyes helps: gofund.me/c13a998b

#fundraising, #donate, #help, #support, and #charity

My wife Mashal’s family was raided by police and government officers (read, Pakistani ICE) in Pakistan, where they have been refugees from the Taliban. Help cover transportation costs, find a safe place to live , and provide basic needs like food and medicine. Every dollar counts. gofund.me/aa47f892

First harvest of the year!

It’s my 45th birthday, and here’s me at dim sum place celebrating this past Sunday (today I’m at a conference).

Headed to NonfictionNow! This is the first time I’ve been to a nonfiction-based conference, and with my second book of literary nonfiction, “Seeking Eden,” under contract with University of Iowa Press in fall ‘26, I’m looking forward to meeting new writer friends.

First poppy of the season

A good day for some ovenwork!

Being anti “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,” means you’re for segregation, discrimination, and exclusion, right? So when Trump goes after DEI the idea is the more racism, sexism, classism, prejudice, ableism, homophobia, etc, the better.

There goes the NSF. In short order, the Department of Education, NIH, and NSF…

Elated that “Seeking Eden,” has found a home with University of Iowa Press!

I haven’t really found or created the equivalent of lit/writer twitter here, but I want to say that, after 17 impossibly long months on the market, I’m vague!

So I wanted to teach relatable and moving poems. That led to teaching Lydia Davis’s “Head, Heart,” Sharon Olds’ “Late Letter to my Father,” and Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s “Song,” this morning— voice cracking with emotion despite my best efforts, while my students watched in horror. What was I thinking?

"Examining events from our childhood can be difficult because we’ve come such a long way through life—and so have changed so much that a great deal of the work of the piece is recreating, even rediscovering our past self." ~ @michaelcopperman.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/o...

So excited for this incredible event I’m putting on tonight in Lansing!

Paulann Peterson posted this today, and it seems right for the coming year

Today we went a-mushrooming!